Author Topic: LIVE: ULA Atlas V - OSIRIS-REx - Sept 8, 2016 (Asteroid Sample Return)  (Read 138286 times)

Offline racshot65

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Quote
NASA Plans to Visit a Near-Earth Asteroid

In a few years a NASA spacecraft will seek the building blocks of life in a shovelful of asteroid dirt. The OSIRIS-REx1 spacecraft, targeted for launch in September 2016, will intercept asteroid 1999 RQ36, orbit it for a year, and then reach out a robotic arm to touch its surface.

...

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/16aug_osirisrex/

« Last Edit: 09/08/2016 01:50 pm by Chris Bergin »

Offline Ronsmytheiii

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If I were a betting man, would put my money on Atlas V.  The real question is what configuration, could range from 401 to 551. 

Offline GClark

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IIRC, the Fact Sheet sez baselined for Atlas V 401.

Offline catdlr

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OSIRIS-REX Video File

Published on Feb 7, 2013
In an effort to better understand Near-Earth Objects, NASA is sending the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to asteroid 1999 RQ36, a remnant of the early solar system. OSIRIS-REx will study the asteroid's composition and the evolution of its orbit, and it will return a pristine sample of the asteroid to Earth for further study. Includes interview with Dr. Joseph Nuth, NASA Deputy Project Scientist, OSIRIS-REx Mission. For more info: http://osiris-rex.lpl.arizona.edu/.

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Offline Galactic Penguin SST

The asteroid target (101955) 1999 RQ36 now has a new name: Bennu (a gray heron said to be assembled from either the fire of Ra (a.k.a. the Sun in ancient Egyptian mythology) or from the heart of Osiris).

http://www.planetary.org/get-involved/contests/osirisrex/name-that-asteroid-press.html
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Offline catdlr

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The link above is broken, here is the NASA presser on this:


May 1, 2013
 
RELEASE : 13-128
 
 
NASA Spacecraft Will Visit Asteroid with New Name
 
 
WASHINGTON -- An asteroid that will be explored by a NASA spacecraft has a new name, thanks to a third-grade student in North Carolina.

NASA's Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft will visit the asteroid now called Bennu, named after an important ancient Egyptian avian deity. OSIRIS-Rex is scheduled to launch in 2016, rendezvous with Bennu in 2018 and return a sample of the asteroid to Earth in 2023.

The name for the carbon-rich asteroid, designated in the scientific community as (101955) 1999 RQ36, is the winning entry in an international student contest. Nine-year-old Michael Puzio suggested the name because he imagined the Touch-and-Go Sample Mechanism (TAGSAM) arm and solar panels on OSIRIS-REx look like the neck and wings in drawings of Bennu, which Egyptians usually depicted as a gray heron. Puzio wrote the name suits the asteroid because it means "the ascending one," or "to shine."

TAGSAM will collect a sample from Bennu and store it for return to Earth. The sample could hold clues to the origin of the solar system and the source of water and organic molecules that may have contributed to the development of life on Earth. The mission will be a vital part of NASA's plans to find, study, capture and relocate an asteroid for exploration by astronauts. NASA recently announced an asteroid initiative proposing a strategy to leverage human and robotic activities for the first human mission to an asteroid while also accelerating efforts to improve detection and characterization of asteroids.

"There were many excellent entries that would be fitting names and provide us an opportunity to educate the world about the exciting nature of our mission," said Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona in Tucson, a contest judge and the principal investigator of the OSIRIS-REx mission. "The information about the composition of Bennu and the nature of its orbit will enable us to explore our past and better understand our future."

More than 8,000 students, all younger than 18, from more than 25 countries worldwide entered the "Name that Asteroid!" contest last year. Each contestant submitted one name with a maximum of 16 characters and a short explanation for the name.

The contest was a partnership with The Planetary Society in Pasadena, Calif.; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, Mass.; and the University of Arizona. The partners assembled a panel to review the submissions and submit a top choice to the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Committee for Small Body Nomenclature. The IAU is the governing body that officially names a celestial object.

"Bennu struck a chord with many of us right away," said Bruce Betts, director of projects for the Planetary Society and a contest judge. "While there were many great entries, the similarity between the image of the heron and the TAGSAM arm of OSIRIS-REx was a clever choice. The parallel with asteroids as both bringers of life and as destructive forces in the solar system also created a great opportunity to teach."

The Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research Program survey team discovered the asteroid in 1999, early in NASA's Near-Earth Objects Observation Program, which detects and catalogs near-Earth asteroids and comets.

"The samples of Bennu returned by OSIRIS-REx will allow scientists to peer into the origin of the solar system and gain insights into the origin of life," said Jason Dworkin, an OSIRIS-REx project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Goddard will provide overall mission management, systems engineering, and safety and mission assurance. The University of Arizona is the principal investigator institution. Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver will build the spacecraft. OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA's New Frontiers Program. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages New Frontiers for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more information on OSIRIS-REx, visit:

http://osiris-rex.lpl.arizona.edu/


For information about the contest, visit

http://planetary.org/name


For more information about NASA's other asteroid-related missions, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

 
- end -
« Last Edit: 05/01/2013 08:16 pm by catdlr »
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Offline vapour_nudge

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The OSIRIS-ReEx fact sheet from the website names the launch vehicle as an Atlas V 411.

http://osiris-rex.lpl.arizona.edu/sites/osiris-rex.lpl.arizona.edu/files/pdfs/Technical%20Fact%20Sheet%202013-05-01.pdf

Offline catdlr

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May 16, 2013
 
RELEASE : 13-143
 
 
NASA's Asteroid Sample Return Mission Moves into Development
 
 
WASHINGTON -- NASA's first mission to sample an asteroid is moving ahead into development and testing in preparation for its launch in 2016.

The Origins-Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) passed a confirmation review Wednesday called Key Decision Point (KDP)-C. NASA officials reviewed a series of detailed project assessments and authorized the spacecraft's continuation into the development phase.

OSIRIS-REx will rendezvous with the asteroid Bennu in 2018 and return a sample of it to Earth in 2023.

"Successfully passing KDP-C is a major milestone for the project," said Mike Donnelly, OSIRIS-REx project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "This means NASA believes we have an executable plan to return a sample from Bennu. It now falls on the project and its development team members to execute that plan."

Bennu could hold clues to the origin of the solar system. OSIRIS-REx will map the asteroid's global properties, measure non-gravitational forces and provide observations that can be compared with data obtained by telescope observations from Earth. OSIRIS-REx will collect a minimum of 2 ounces (60 grams) of surface material.

"The entire OSIRIS-REx team has worked very hard to get to this point," said Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator at the University of Arizona in Tucson. "We have a long way to go before we arrive at Bennu , but I have every confidence when we do, we will have built a supremely capable system to return a sample of this primitive asteroid."

The mission will be a vital part of NASA's plans to find, study, capture and relocate an asteroid for exploration by astronauts. NASA recently announced an asteroid initiative proposing a strategy to leverage human and robotic activities for the first human mission to an asteroid while also accelerating efforts to improve detection and characterization of asteroids.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. will provide overall mission management, systems engineering and safety and mission assurance. The University of Arizona in Tucson is the principal investigator institution. Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver will build the spacecraft. OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA's New Frontiers Program. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages New Frontiers for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more information on OSIRIS-REx, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/osiris-rex/index.html


and


http://osiris-rex.lpl.arizona.edu/

 
- end -
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Offline catdlr

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NASA | OSIRIS-REx Investigates Asteroid Bennu

Published on May 16, 2013
OSIRIS-REx will visit a Near Earth asteroid called Bennu and return with samples that may hold clues to the origins of the solar system and perhaps life itself. It will also investigate the asteroid's chance of impacting Earth in 2182. For the mission, NASA has selected the team led by Principal Investigator Dr. Dante Lauretta from the University of Arizona. NASA GSFC will manage the mission and Lockheed Martin Space Systems will build the spacecraft. Arizona State University will supply the OTES instrument; NASA GSFC will supply the OVIRS instrument; the Canadian Space Agency will supply the OLA instrument; the University of Arizona will supply the OCAMS camera suite; Harvard/MIT will supply the REXIS instrument; and Flight Dynamics will supply the KinetX instrument.


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Online Chris Bergin

CONTRACT RELEASE C13-035


NASA Selects Launch Services Contract for OSIRIS-REx Mission


NASA has selected United Launch Services LLC of Englewood, Colo. to launch the Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft.

The OSIRIS-REx mission is scheduled to launch in September 2016 aboard an Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.

This new firm-fixed price, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity, launch service task order contract is valued at about $183.5 million. This price includes payload processing, integrated services, telemetry and other launch support requirements.

OSIRIS-REx will survey near-Earth asteroid 101955 Bennu to understand its physical, mineralogical and chemical properties; assess its resource potential; refine the impact hazard; and return a sample to Earth. The spacecraft will rendezvous with the asteroid in 2018. Sample return is planned in 2023. Analysis of the sample returned will reveal the earliest stages of the solar system's evolution and the history of Bennu over the past 4.5 billion years.

OSIRIS-REx also will study the Yarkovsky effect, a non-gravitational force affecting the orbit of this potentially hazardous asteroid, and provide the first direct measurements for telescopic observations of this type of asteroids.

NASA's Launch Services Program at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is responsible for program management of the Atlas V launch vehicle. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., provides overall mission management for OSIRIS-REx.

For more information about NASA programs and missions, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

-end-
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Online Chris Bergin

NASA Selects United Launch Alliance Atlas V for Critical OSIRIS REx
Asteroid Sample Return Mission

Centennial, Colo. (Aug. 5, 2013) – NASA’s Launch Services Program announced today that it selected United Launch Alliance’s (ULA’s) proven Atlas V vehicle to launch the Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS Rex) mission, which will be the first U.S. mission to carry samples from an asteroid back to Earth.
   “We are honored that NASA has selected ULA to launch this critical mission,” said Jim Sponnick, ULA vice president of Atlas and Delta Programs. “NASA has trusted our highly reliable Atlas V vehicle to launch missions including Pluto New Horizons, Juno and Mars Science Lab, and now OSIRIS-Rex.”
The mission is scheduled to launch in 2016 from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. This mission will launch aboard an Atlas V 411 Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV), which includes a 4-meter diameter payload fairing and one solid rocket motor.
   With 39 successful missions spanning a decade of operational service, the commercially developed Atlas V is uniquely qualified to provide launch services for these high-value NASA New Frontier Missions,” said Sponnick. “Atlas V is currently the only launch vehicle certified by NASA to fly the nation’s most complex exploration missions.”
   The mission will help scientists investigate how planets formed and how life began, as well as improve our understanding of asteroids that could impact Earth. Following launch, the spacecraft will reach its asteroid target in 2018 and return a sample to Earth in 2023.
   ULA program management, engineering, test and mission support functions are headquartered in Denver, Colo. Manufacturing, assembly and integration operations are located at Decatur, Ala., and Harlingen, Texas. Launch operations are located at Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., and Vandenberg AFB, Calif.
For more information on ULA, visit the ULA website at www.ulalaunch.com, or call the ULA Launch Hotline at 1-877-ULA-4321 (852-4321). Join the conversation at www.facebook.com/ulalaunch and twitter.com/ulalaunch.
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Offline a_langwich

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The name for the carbon-rich asteroid, designated in the scientific community as (101955) 1999 RQ36, is the winning entry in an international student contest. Nine-year-old Michael Puzio suggested the name because he imagined the Touch-and-Go Sample Mechanism (TAGSAM) arm and solar panels on OSIRIS-REx look like the neck and wings in drawings of Bennu, which Egyptians usually depicted as a gray heron. Puzio wrote the name suits the asteroid because it means "the ascending one," or "to shine."

Does anybody else find it a stretch a nine-year-old was conversant with minor deities of ancient Egypt, the derivation of the words in the name, and the visual similarities between an as-yet-unconstructed NASA probe and blue herons?  No doubt he then gave a lecture on the changing depictions of Bennu from the Old Kingdom to the Middle Kingdom, and the symbolic yearning for flight that transcended ancient Egypt and connects it to our space program today.  FWIW, Bennu is not listed in the Wikipedia entry on Egyptian gods...it's that minor.


Offline arachnitect

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The name for the carbon-rich asteroid, designated in the scientific community as (101955) 1999 RQ36, is the winning entry in an international student contest. Nine-year-old Michael Puzio suggested the name because he imagined the Touch-and-Go Sample Mechanism (TAGSAM) arm and solar panels on OSIRIS-REx look like the neck and wings in drawings of Bennu, which Egyptians usually depicted as a gray heron. Puzio wrote the name suits the asteroid because it means "the ascending one," or "to shine."

Does anybody else find it a stretch a nine-year-old was conversant with minor deities of ancient Egypt, the derivation of the words in the name, and the visual similarities between an as-yet-unconstructed NASA probe and blue herons?  No doubt he then gave a lecture on the changing depictions of Bennu from the Old Kingdom to the Middle Kingdom, and the symbolic yearning for flight that transcended ancient Egypt and connects it to our space program today.  FWIW, Bennu is not listed in the Wikipedia entry on Egyptian gods...it's that minor.



Kid's probably been reading a book on Egyptian mythology. If you put it in Google books, Bennu is mentioned in several that a generally intelligent 9 year old could be reading.

You'll also get it if you put (Egypt Heron) into Google.

He doesn't have a top down understanding of Egyptology -nor would he need to- he's just come across this particular deity somehow.

It has a bit of that Calvin and Hobbes flavor to it: there's always that kid who knows everything about some topic (dinosaurs, in Calvin's case) but can't tie his/her own shoes.

Offline Star One

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I amazed you can use a launcher with just one solid booster as I thought that would make the thrust very asymmetric and harder to control?

Offline kevin-rf

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The v411 has already flown three times. The launch's are quite spectacular since it appears to push the rocket sideways off the pad.

You have the same asymmetry with the v431 (2 launches), v511 (0 launches), v531 (2 launches), and the v551 (4 launches).
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Offline Nick L.

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Even the configurations with an even number of SRBs are not symmetrical, because of the way the mounting points are arranged. However, in all cases, the asymmetry is totally within the main engine's ability to control, so there are no issues.

It definitely looks weird though!
http://www.launchphotography.com/ASTRA_1KR.html
« Last Edit: 08/09/2013 03:40 am by Nick L. »
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Offline Star One

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Thanks for the video. Yes that was a peculiar looking sideways almost launch.

Offline TheFallen

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Send your name to asteroid Bennu aboard OSIRIS-REx... The deadline is September 30th.

http://www.planetary.org/get-involved/messages/bennu/

Offline WHAP

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The v411 has already flown three times. The launch's are quite spectacular since it appears to push the rocket sideways off the pad.

It doesn't just appear to.  It does.
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April 10, 2014
Construction to Begin on NASA Spacecraft Set to Visit Asteroid in 2018


NASA's team that will conduct the first U.S. mission to collect samples from an asteroid has been given the go-ahead to begin building the spacecraft, flight instruments and ground system, and launch support facilities.

This determination was made Wednesday after a successful Mission Critical Design Review (CDR) for NASA’s Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx). The CDR was held at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company in Littleton, Colo., April 1-9. An independent review board, comprised of experts from NASA and several external organizations, met to review the system design.

"This is the final step for a NASA mission to go from paper to product,” said Gordon Johnston, OSIRIS-REx program executive at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC. “This confirms that the final design is ready to start the build-up towards launch.”

OSIRIS-REx is scheduled to launch in the fall of 2016, rendezvous with the asteroid Bennu in 2018 and return a sample of it to Earth in 2023. The spacecraft carries five instruments that will remotely evaluate the surface of Bennu. After more than a year of asteroid reconnaissance, the spacecraft will collect samples of at least 2 ounces (60 grams) and return them to Earth for scientists to study.

"Successfully passing mission CDR is a major accomplishment, but the hard part is still in front of us -- building, integrating and testing the flight system in support of a tight planetary launch window," said Mike Donnelly, OSIRIS-REx project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Key mission objectives focus on finding answers to basic questions about the composition of the very early solar system and the source of organic materials and water that made life possible on Earth. The mission will also aid NASA’s asteroid initiative and support the agency's efforts to understand the population of potentially hazardous near-Earth objects and characterize those suitable for future asteroid exploration missions. The initiative brings together the best of NASA's science, technology and human exploration efforts to achieve President Obama's goal of sending humans to an asteroid by 2025.

"The OSIRIS-REx team has consistently demonstrated its ability to present a comprehensive mission design that meets all requirements within the resources provided by NASA," said Dante Lauretta, principal investigator from the University of Arizona, Tucson. "Mission CDR was no exception. This is a great team. I know we will build a flight and ground system that is up to the challenges of this ambitious mission."

In January, NASA invited people around the world to submit their names to be etched on a microchip aboard the spacecraft. After submitting their name, participants are able to download and print a certificate documenting their participation in the OSIRIS-REx mission. The campaign is open until September 30, 2014.

Goddard Space Flight Center will provide overall mission management, systems engineering, and safety and mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver will build the spacecraft. OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in the agency's New Frontiers Program. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages New Frontiers for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The University of Arizona leads OSIRIS-REx and provides the camera system and science processing and operations center.

For more information about the OSIRIS-REx mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex

and

http://asteroidmission.org

Jacques :-)

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